Significance of fungal evolution for the understanding of their pathogenicity, illustrated with agents of phaeohyphomycosis.
Phaeohyphomycosis is an umbrella term for all those mycoses where the fungus is present in tissue with melanized filaments. It is surmised that some groups of species within the ascomycete family Herpotrichiellaceae exhibit an evolutionary tendency towards pathogenicity on vertebrate hosts. Such a tendency is not observed in the families Pleosporaceae and Dothideaceae. Mycoses provoked by members of the three families thus may be fundamentally different. Phaeohyphomycosis should be regarded as an artificial descriptor without biological significance.
de Hoog
G S
GS
Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Baarn, The Netherlands.
D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D009181:Mycoses / Q000382:microbiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology